Jury Duty
by a blurred someday
Summary: Mac does not expect the day she has jury duty to be anything less than awful. Even really smart people can be wrong. A MacDick story.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, I only became a fan of Mac & Dick like this week, so I'm new to the game. This is just something that I thought of while I was (surprise, surprise) doing jury duty. There are a few more chapters that I'll post in the next few days. And if I owned any of VMars, it would still be on the air, dammit. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

Mac settled down into the chair and sighed. 

'Civic obligation, my ass,' she thought to herself.

She looked around the sparse room at the rest of the jury pool and consoled herself that maybe she would be put on the jury for some sort of computer-related crime and thus wouldn't go out of her mind with boredom.

Just then a sun-bleached head of hair caught her eye at the front of the room and she had to look twice to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Dick Casablancas, doing something without the promise of pleasure or profit? It couldn't be.

Although she usually tried to avoid Dick, she couldn't quell her curiosity, so she began to make her way to the front of the room, where he was listening to his iPod.

"Hey dude," he said to a nearby security guard in a very loud voice, "Do you know when I can leave?"

The guard made a 'Keep it down' motion with his hands, then signaled for Dick to remove his headphones, which he did.

"You won't know how long you'll be here until you know what trial you've been assigned to," the guard said.

"Okay, thanks," Dick said, speaking just as loudly as he had before.

Mac reached where Dick was seated and stood there for a minute, arms at her sides.

"Hey," she said woodenly.

"Mac!" he said with exuberance. Mac wondered briefly if he had ever done anything without exuberance. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Baking a cake," she said.

He grinned and shook his head. "That's what I like about you, Mac. Your sense of humor."

"So can I sit down?"

"Oh, yeah, totally."

As she sat down, Mac heard his words from that day at the beach echoing through her head. "_I get it now what my brother saw in you,_" he'd said. She still hadn't figured out what to make of it, and now didn't feel like the time to try.

"What are you doing here?" she asked after a minute of silence.

"Kind of blows your mind, right?" he said. "My lawyer made me come. I blew it off last time, and he got on my ass about it, and he kept throwing words like 'federal offense' around. So, here I am."

Mac nodded and tried to get comfortable in her chair.

"Nice shirt, by the way," Dick said, gesturing to Mac's tee, which let everyone know that she was chillin' like a villain.

"Yours, too," she said.

"Thanks. It's come in handy more than once."

Dick's shirt said 'Where are my pants?' in Spanish.

"What number does your card say?" Dick asked, grabbing for the piece of paper in her hand.

She evaded his grasp but answered, "Twenty-nine."

"I'm twelve," he said, looking disappointed.

"Well you certainly act it," Mac said with a small smile on her face.

"Ha ha, yeah, let's make fun of Dick for his youthful enthusiasm. Don't you know that you'll have a head start if you're among the very young at heart?"

"I prefer to be old before my time," Mac said. "It just suits me better."

"Yeah, well you might be a real live granny by the time we get out of this room," Dick said, leaning back in his chair and stretching his arm out on Mac's chair back. His fingers brushed her shoulder and she tried to suppress a shiver.

Twenty minutes later the guard played a poorly made video about how jury duty works. As a woman with a lisp explained the purpose of a judge, Dick leaned toward Mac.

"Dude, even I know this stuff," he said. Mac gave him a half-smile.

When the video was over, the guard told the jurors that they had a forty minute break before they would be sent to their sessions.

"Break?" Mac asked in disbelief. "We haven't done anything yet. How can we have a break? This is a highly inefficient system."

Dick shrugged and got up without a comment. Mac almost got up to follow him but then she stopped herself, thinking that maybe he had to go to the bathroom or something.

He came back a few minutes later and handed her a large cup of coffee.

"They didn't have soy milk, sorry," he said, sitting down and taking a sip from his own cup.

"Oh. It's alright," Mac said, surprised that he remembered, or even knew in the first place, that she was a vegan. "Thanks."

"No prob," said Dick.

As they drank their coffee, they talked about their freshman year and their summer plans.

"I was supposed to go surfing with Logan in South America all summer but that sort of fell through," Dick said.

"Why?"

Dick shrugged and took a long sip of his coffee. "Logan decided to stay here with Parker, or something, I don't know."

Mac was pretty sure there was more to the story, but she didn't push him about it.

"Maybe one of your frat brothers could go with you instead," she suggested.

"Nah, I think the trip's just not happening—plus the other guys are fun to party with, but we're not, you know, like, close."

Mac nodded, and Dick nodded, too, and then his face broke into a wide grin.

"You thought at all about rushing?"

Mac snorted into her coffee. "Please. Can you really see me in a sorority?"

Dick closed his eyes. "Yep. There you are. Cute nightie. Oh, pillow fight!"

Mac laughed in spite of herself. She took another sip of her coffee, then she frowned.

"Wait, Logan wanted to stay here because of Parker? He doesn't want to get back together with her, does he?"

"Please, Mac, you know as well as I do that he's ass-backwards in love with Ronnie. He called off the trip while he was still with Parker, but now he's a free man again, not that he takes advantage of it. And now that the trip's off, he's got nothing to do this summer except pine over Ronnie while she's off solving crime and having phone sex with Marlon Bland-o. That's what I call Piz in my head sometimes."

"You shouldn't say things like that," Mac chided.

"Why not? Piz is lame, and Ronnie should be with Logan anyway. I was in the dining hall when these guys were giving Veronica a hard time about their video, and Piz didn't even do anything. He was holding her back, even. If somebody insults your girl, you kick his ass—end of story."

"Piz is a nice guy," Mac argued. "He's good for her. He's stable."

Dick snorted. "What's so great about stability, anyway? Takes all the spice out of life."

Mac didn't say anything, because secretly she agreed with him—she thought Veronica and Logan should be together. They had their ups and downs but they would do anything for each other. Also, they were miserable when they were apart.

Dick was looking around and jiggling his foot restlessly. "Think we can sneak out the back?" he asked.

"They collect the cards at the end of the day. They'll know if we leave."

"Think I can bribe the guard?"

Mac gave him a look. He sighed and handed her one of his iPod earbuds. He put the other one in his ear and started the music. He pulled out his PSP and started playing a really violent game, while Mac went over some program codes she'd brought with her.

Two and a half hours later, Dick was asleep and Mac was still listening to a playlist that she'd discovered was named "Music to score by." She hated to admit it, but the mix wasn't bad. She noticed then that the guard was headed towards the front of the room. Mac nudged the boy sprawled out in the chair next to her. Dick sat up and Mac laughed when she saw his hair sticking straight up in the air.

"Good afternoon, jurors," the guard said. "We are very sorry for the delay, but all the cases scheduled to go to trial today have been settled, so you are all free to go. Thank you for your time, and we'll see you in three years."

Dick yelled "Boo-yah!" at the same time that Mac said, "Are you kidding me?"

Dick turned to grin at Mac. "Put on your dancing shoes, girlie, we're going to celebrate!"

"Seriously?"

"Of course."

"It's the middle of the day, what is there to do?" Mac asked.

"I know a place."

"I'm not going to a strip club."

"Aw, come on, dude!"


	2. Chapter 2

As they exited the courthouse, Dick threw his hands in the air and yelled, "Freedom!" He looked over at Mac. "C'mon, let's go do something. Where's your wind-up toy?"

"My deceptively cute but surprisingly powerful car is at home. I got dropped off. Where's your compensating device?"

"Hey, I don't need to compensate for anything, and if you keep that talk up I'll prove it to you."

"Down, boy," Mac said with a smirk.

"Alright, hop in," he said, motioning to his truck, which was parked in a spot belonging to a Judge Haskey.

"Seriously, how do you get away with the things you do?" Mac asked.

"Born under a lucky star, I guess," Dick said.

"Hey, Mac!"

Dick and Mac both turned at the sound of someone yelling her name and saw Weevil hobbling toward them.

"Hey, girl, how you been?" Weevil asked.

"Just trying not to let the man get me down," Mac said as she and Weevil bumped fists. "You?"

"I'm alright," Weevil said. He turned to Dick. "How's it going, dude?" he asked in an exaggerated surfer voice.

"Hey, man," Dick said.

Weevil blinked. Mac looked at Dick and he looked back at her. "What, I'm not allowed to be cordial?" Dick said.

Weevil shook his head. "Whatever. Listen, Mac, I heard from V about what happened with you and your guy, and I just wanted to offer my services if you decide you want to pay him back a little—or, you know, a lot."

Mac blushed. "Thanks, Weevil, but I don't think so. If I change my mind I'll give you a call."

"Alright, well I gotta go—my cousin got into some trouble and I gotta talk to his public defender, but stay cool, chola."

"Okay, bye," Mac said. She turned and started to climb up as gracefully as she could into the passenger seat of Dick's truck. When he hopped easily into the driver's seat, Dick looked at her for a minute.

"So?" he asked finally. "What did that guy do to you?"

"Nothing too bad. Luckily, I've got a buttload of what my mom calls 'perspective' when it comes to these things."

"Seriously," Dick said. "What did he do?"

Mac sighed. "He sort of hooked up with his ex while we were together. And she was kind of a hooker."

"Like, literally, a hooker?"

"Yes, literally a hooker."

Dick looked thoughtful. "What was his name again?" he asked.

"Max."

"What's his last name?"

"Why?"

"No reason. What is it?"

Mac rolled her eyes. "Come on, Dick."

Dick was quiet again for a moment, and then, gripping the steering wheel, he turned to face her. "Look, I know I already said sorry and everything, but I want to prove it."

"You don't have to do that."

"Yeah, I do. What Beav did to you, a lot of it is my fault."

"No, it really wasn't." When Dick didn't look convinced at all, Mac frowned at his stubbornness. "If you want to prove you care, we can just try to be friends, okay? Don't go pick a fight because you think you have to protect me."

Dick smiled. "Well, who else is gonna do it? You're so little."

Mac grinned and swiped her fist at his arm. "For your information, I have at my disposal the former leader of a biker gang, not to mention my good friend Veronica, who happens to have terrorized dozens of guys at Hearst already. And probably Wallace and Logan, too, because they'd protect anyone she would."

"Well, count me in," Dick said. He gave her a salute. "Private Dick reporting for duty. I can't hotwire a car like Weevil, and I don't carry a taser like Ronnie, but I can still totally throw down."

"Good to know," Mac said with a small smile as she looked out the window and noticed what else was on the road they were sitting on. "Hey, you want to go play laser tag?"

"Hell, yeah! No one ever wants to play with me!" Dick said. He smiled and looked at her appraisingly. "I may have underestimated you, MacKenzie."

"Story of my life," she said with a wry smile as Dick steered the car onto the road.

In the laser tag arena, Mac ducked around a corner, breathless and exhilarated. She was loving every second of this game—she got to get out all her pent-up energy and frustrations. Running around a room screaming your head off while techno music blared and strobe lights flashed was really an overlooked form of therapy. She idly thought that maybe she could patent the idea.

Just then she felt a large hand circle around her arm and yank her behind a pole, where she saw Dick, looking boyish and excited and sweaty.

"They're everywhere!" he told her. "Okay, we've got to divide and conquer. Let's take out the left side first," he said as he fired a shot at someone over Mac's shoulder.

"Hey," Mac said as an idea struck her. "Did you ever see _Mr. & Mrs. Smith_?"

"Uh, yeah, Angelina Jolie's a fox—why are you asking me this now?"

"Remember the final shootout scene?"

Dick nodded solemnly. "Let's do this."

They burst out of their hiding spot and began shooting at everything in sight. The two stood back to back and took out everyone they could, then they turned in unison so they were facing each other, Dick shooting at everyone over Mac's shoulders, and Mac peeking over Dick's shoulder and shooting from under his arms.

Soon, the two of them were the only players with any lives left, and they stood alone in the middle of the room, beaming at each other.

"Nice shooting, dude!" he told Mac with a huge grin, holstering his gun and holding up both hands for a double high-five. "You totally wasted those little mofos."

"In another life I was a laser cop," she said with a smile just as big as his.

Dick stared at her smiling face, and then, just when she started to feel self-conscious, he blinked and shook his head slightly.

"Go again?" he asked, but Mac looked at her watch and shook her head no.

"I should get home, my mom hates it when I'm late for dinner," she said.

Dick's face fell and Mac felt sorry to see the smile leave his face.

"Yeah, alright, I'll go get the car," he said.

When Mac joined him outside and pulled herself up into her seat, Dick didn't say anything. Finally Mac made a decision and broke the silence.

"Hey, Dick?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing for dinner?"

"I don't know—room service probably."

"Well, you don't have to, but you could come to dinner at my house if you wanted."

"Really?" he asked, sounding like he'd just been offered a trip to the Playboy mansion. Mac smiled and nodded. In the back of her mind she felt sad that a simple invitation to eat with her family meant so much to him. "I'm not that good with parents, though," he said.

"You'll be fine, just be yourself," Mac said. Dick's smile grew even wider. "But I have a little brother," she cautioned. "So, be you, but maybe tone it down a little."

"Can do," he said cheerily as he turned on the CD player.


	3. Chapter 3

When they pulled up outside Mac's house, Dick turned off the car but didn't take the key out of the ignition.

"Hey, I was thinking," he said to Mac, "And I'm pretty sure your parents won't like me if you introduce me as Dick, the guy whose brother left you naked in a hotel room." Mac's eyes widened at the last part of his sentence and he shrugged apologetically. "Ronnie was really worried about you after, and she yelled at me a couple times. It came out."

Mac considered it and nodded. "You're probably right. So if I'm not calling you Dick whose brother left me naked in a hotel room, what should I call you?"

"Umm," Dick said, running a hand through his hair and making it stand on end. "What about Rich, who as far as your parents know never had any siblings?"

"That works," Mac said, as she hopped down from the truck. Dick came around the truck and began to stride up the walkway. "Oh, hold on a second," Mac said, turning him away from the house. He looked down at her in surprise, and she realized that they were standing close together and that her hand was still on his arm. She dropped her hand and coughed.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said quickly. "Just…your hair." She reached up her other hand and quickly ran her fingers through his hair to make it lie flat. He gave her a goofy, lopsided grin and she smiled briefly before moving past him and walking in the front door.

"My brother's kind of a pain," Mac said quietly to Dick as she put down her bag. "And my mom will ask you millions of questions, and my dad—"

"Dude, don't even worry about it," Dick said, although he looked rather nervous himself. "It's gonna be fine."

"Hi, honey," Mac's mom said then as she came down the hallway, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.

"Mom, this is my friend Rich. He goes to Hearst, too."

"Hi, Rich, I'm Lorraine," Mac's mom said with a wide smile.

"Nice to meet you," Dick said, holding out his hand.

"Can he stay for dinner?" Mac asked.

"Sure," Mac's mom said. "I think we should have enough food. Do you eat normal food, Rich?"

"Yes ma'am, I'm a hard-core carnivore," Dick said with a smile, which Mrs. MacKenzie returned.

"Good, me too," she said, before returning to the kitchen. Mac led the way down the hall and found her father sitting watching television.

"Dad, this is my friend Rich. He's staying for dinner."

"Oh, hi," Mac's dad said, turning off the TV and standing up to shake Dick's hand. "Sam MacKenzie, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, sir," Dick replied.

"Cindy, how was jury duty?"

"It could have been worse. I ran into Rich there, and we got out by mid-afternoon."

"Oh, good. What did you do the rest of the day?"

"We dominated in laser tag," Dick answered.

Mr. MacKenzie looked at Dick in surprise. "You got her to play laser tag with you? Nice work."

"It wasn't too hard, actually."

"You played laser tag without me?" Mac's brother Ryan asked from the doorway. He walked into the room and looked up at Dick. "Who are you?"

"Ryan, this is my friend Rich. Rich, my brother Ryan."

"Sorry we didn't come get you, little dude, but you can come next time."

Ryan appeared mollified, and Mac smiled shyly at Dick. Mac's mother walked in the room just then and said that dinner would be ready in just a few minutes.

"Rich, what would you like to drink?" she asked. "Some soda?"

"Can I have soda?" Ryan asked.

"You can have milk," Mrs. MacKenzie answered.

"I'll have milk too, please," Dick said. Mac looked at him with raised eyebrows and he shrugged. "I was never allowed to have sugar when I was younger. Don't want to rub it in the little guy's face that I can have it now."

"Do you get hyperactive, too?" Ryan asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Dick answered with a solemn nod.

They sat down at the table and Mrs. MacKenzie started passing around dishes, giving Mac a special plate of Vegan food.

"Thanks, Mrs. MacKenzie, this all looks really good," Dick said. "I can't remember the last time I had a home-cooked meal."

"Well, we're glad you could join us," Mac's mother said.

"So what do you like to do, Rich?" Mr. MacKenize asked when everyone had served themselves.

"I surf a lot," Dick told him. "It relaxes me."

"No kidding," Mac's dad said. "I used to surf a lot myself. And now I sell jet skis."

"I've been thinking about getting a jet ski," Dick said thoughtfully.

"You should come by the store, I'll give you a good deal. We just got all the new models in, they're—"

"Okay, enough shoptalk, boys," Mrs. MacKenzie interrupted. "Did you and Cindy have any classes together this semester, Rich?"

"Oh, no, she's way smarter than me," Dick said honestly.

Both Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie beamed at their daughter, who gave them a smile in return.

"Well, Cindy's into programming and all that technological stuff," Mr. MacKenzie said. "What's your major going to be?

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Dick said. "But something like hotel management or event planning could be a feasible option."

Mac was impressed with Dick's vocabulary use, until Ryan asked what "feasible" meant and Dick told him it meant you could charge large fees.

"I'd need help with that stuff though, all the business parts," Dick said. "That was always more of my brother's deal." He put some food in his mouth, then stopped chewing when he realized he's brought up Beaver without thinking. He swallowed and looked at Mac in dismay.

"Oh, you have a brother?" Mrs. MacKenzie asked. "How old is he?"

Dick and Mac were still looking at each other, and Mac put her hand on his. Finally, Mac turned her eyes away from Dick and looked at her mother.

"Mom, Cassidy was Rich's brother," she said quietly.

"Oh," Mrs. MacKenzie said. "Oh, Rich, I'm so sorry."

Dick looked up in surprise and saw Mac's mother getting up and walking towards him. She shooed Mac out of her seat and set down next to Dick, bringing him in for a tight hug. "You poor thing," she said quietly.

Mac would have expected Dick to look highly uncomfortable in such a situation, but after a second he just shut his eyes and held onto her mother. She wondered when he was last hugged by a parent, or even at all. She made a mental note to try to hug him every once in a while.

"How are your parents doing with everything?" Mac's father asked after a minute. Mac's mom loosened her hold enough so that Dick could turn and answer.

"My mom's been in Europe since before he died, and my step-mom disappeared, and my dad just turned himself in for a jail sentence."

"Oh, you poor thing," Mrs. MacKenzie said again. "Are you still in your house?"

"Right now I'm in a hotel with a friend. I think I'm just gonna sell the house."

Mac's mom squeezed him again, and said to him, "Well, anytime you're lonely and you want some company, just call."

"That's what she said," Dick said before immediately freezing. He then lifted his head and looked at Mac in shock, unable to believe he'd actually said that. She looked back at him with an open mouth. No one moved, until all of a sudden, from the far end of the table, there came a chuckle. Mac's dad began to laugh, louder and louder the more he thought about it. Mac's mother joined in soon, and then they were all laughing, except for Ryan, who kept asking what girl Dick was talking about.

When their laughter died out, Mac's mom ruffled Dick's hair affectionately and moved back to her own seat.

After dessert had been cleared away and Ryan had left the table to go to bed, Dick leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"I guess I should get going," he said reluctantly.

"Are you sure?" Mac's mother asked. "You're welcome to stay as long as you want."

"No, I should probably head home. I had to leave so early this morning, my roommate might think I just never came home last night. And if that's the case I'm pushing that whole 48-hour missing persons deal, so I should get back. But thanks again for having me, everything was delicious."

Dick got up from the table and shook Mac's dad's hand again. Mac's mother hugged him again, and he hugged her back tightly.

"Come back again soon," Mrs. MacKenzie told him, and he promised he would.

Dick waved one more time as he walked out with Mac.

"Dude, your parents are so cool," he said to her once they were out on the front step.

"I think they liked you," she replied.

Dick grinned. "There's a first time for everything, I guess."

Neither one said anything for a minute. Cindy and Rich weren't there anymore—they were back to being Mac and Dick, and they took a minute to readjust.

"My mom really meant it when she told you to come back, you know," Mac said finally.

"I know," Dick said. "I'm glad. Today…today was totally awesome, Mac. It was the first time in a really long time I've had fun without drinking or surfing or doing something stupid."

Mac smiled and Dick took a small step towards her.

"We can do it again, right?" Dick asked.

"In three years, yeah," Mac said.

"Not jury duty," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I meant hang out, spend the day together," he explained as he took another step toward her.

"I know what you meant," Mac said quietly, craning her neck to look up at him.

"Tomorrow?" Dick asked, moving so that he was right in front of her.

"Yeah, okay," Mac said, her cheeks starting to flush.

"Good," Dick said softly, his mouth hovering just a few centimeters away from hers. He stayed there for a few seconds, driving Mac crazy with the feel of his warm breath on her skin. He brought a hand up to her hair, letting his fingers slide through it until they rested on her neck. Finally, he closed the distance between them and pressed his lips against hers.

Mac gasped when he moved his mouth against hers, softly and sweetly. His hands moved to rest on the small of her back, and he pulled her closer. Her skin tingled deliciously everywhere he touched her.

Mac had seen Dick at enough parties this year to know that this was a big moment for him. He wasn't making out, or hooking up, he was just _kissing_.

He broke away from her a minute later.

"Best jury duty _ever_," he said, smiling down at her goofily. She found herself grinning back at him, and he tapped her on the nose before turning to walk down the pathway. "So, I'll pick you up in the morning?"

Mac just nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"See you on the flip side, Mackie," Dick called as he hopped into his truck, still smiling.

Mac waved and stood there watching him drive down the street. She turned and went in the front door, finding her mother waiting for her in the living room. She tried not to smile when her mother looked at her knowingly, but she failed and she felt her face heat up even more.

"So," her mother said. "How long have you and Rich been more than friends?"

Mac looked down at her watch. "About four minutes."

Her mother looked ready to explode with this information. "He just kissed you? For the first time? Just now?"

Mac nodded and felt her smile widen as some of her mother's excitement rubbed off on her.

"What was it like?" her mother asked, dragging her over to sit on the couch.

"It was kind of perfect," Mac said, surprising herself with her words. "I never would have thought kissing him would feel so right."

Her mother smiled fondly. "I felt the same way after I kissed your dad for the first time. He's wonderful now, but God, was he a dick when I first met him."

Mac burst out laughing and couldn't stop for a long time. She went to bed that night grinning, replaying her moment with Dick on the front step, and wondering when she'd gotten so freaking girly.

* * *

A/N: Hey there readers, sorry it took me so long to get this posted. This was the final chapter of this story, so I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's still hard to write Dick convincingly, but I really feel that, given the brief glimpse we got of Mac's parents (or her mom at least), Dick would get along with Mac's family really well. As always, please let me know what you thought- I'd love to hear your opinions! 


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